The KABERLE Era has begun!

THE KABERLE ERA HAS ARRIVED!

Yes, the KABERLE era has begun. Can't say I'm disappointed so far, I'm even...excited. Optimistic, even. KABERLE has the third-highest point total for defensemen since the lockout, behind only the Lidstrom-Rafalski combo. 10th on that list is Chara, though he's only 2 points behind Scott Neidermeyer in the same time period. KABERLE is the puck-moving offensive defenseman we've been waiting for.
Look at his grace in skating, his defensive responsibility, and (of course) his slick passing. Truly, he's an elite player. Now's the time to pick up your PLAYOFFS!!!1 shirt.I mean, seriously, did you see that sweet stick-lift against Iginla last night? KABERLE doin' work.
Through 2 games he hasn't appeared on the scoresheet yet but he's getting used to a new situation. Our powerplay doesn't score much but it already looks better. So does our breakout. It's even more painful to see the Ference-McQuaid pairing get stuck behind the goal line now.

As for Peverley and Kelly, I'm pretty pumped about them too. Peverley can skate like the wind and both of them are winning a couple faceoffs, I believe.

I'm going to call this next picture "The newer new hotness"

I may be getting my hopes up here but I'm starting to get a good feeling about this team. I'm starting to Believe in Boston.

KABERLE! KABERLE! KABERLE!!!1

GO BRUINS!

Nathan Horton: The Goomba

Yeah I've been gone for a while but there hasn't been a whole lot going on, so I'm about ready to write some things. I've got the itch and the same thing keeps popping up time after time:

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM LOOK AT NATHAN HORTON'S GIANT FOREHEAD!

I mean, have you seen the man? I'm hoping he jumps immediately into the category of "I don't care if he's got a face tattoo, as long as he scores goals like this:

Oh yes, I'll take one of those please.

So yeah, let's get into it. I'm excited about the guy, you're excited about the guy (or you should be you ignoramous or fan of another team) and who wouldn't be? Heck, back in 2009 someone thought he was awesome enough to make a custom NHL 09 cover:

Great work, Custom Sports Covers! They did another one for NHL10, actually. And a Thomas NHL10. Whatever. Here's a Powerplay snnnnnnnipe on one Jonathan Quick:

Yes, yes, yes, Horton!

So what about statistically? Well, first of all he's had 20 goals in each of the last 5 years but you probably already heard that one about a million times. Well, I have anyhow. Let's see, last year he was 4th on the Panthers in GVT, and second in Defensive Value. GVT is a little odd because you're better off comparing to the team than the whole league. Either way, a big part of that Florida team. And then he comes up here, a goal-scoring talent who just squeezed 20 goals out of Stephen Weiss, Michael Frolik, and the corpse of David Booth. Oh, did I mention 7 of his 57 points were in concert with Dennis Seidenberg? Oh, probably should've mentioned that one.

Lucic-Savard-Horton? I need a napkin.

He's also fought a couple guys you may remember: Hal Gill, Arron Asham, Tim Gleason, etc. Of course, that was all a couple years ago. According to HockeyFights.com, his last fight was in the 08-09 preseason: Dropping the Purse with Ryan O'Byrne. The video isn't on youtube, so instead watch Horton try to take on the hilariously larger Hal Gill:

Look at him try to pick up Gill. What?

So we shouldn't really expect much in that department from him. Oh well. We've got Thornton and friends to take care of face-punching. What this team needs is goals and I'm pumped at the thought we might actually get some this year.

All that aside, and I think most importantly, he looks like a Goomba:

Thanks to random Puck Daddy Commenter "Richard R" for pointing this out.

GO Goomba!

GO BRUINS!

DRAFT LOTTERY TONIGHT! WOOOOOO

Well, ladies and gents, this is it. This is the part of the season you've been waiting for that isn't the playoffs. It's time for a

DRAFT LOTTERY PARTY!!!!

So the Bruins have an 18.8% chance of getting first overall and having to pick between Taylor Hall:

And Tyler Seguin:

Lordy lordy, what would we DO????

But if we don't get that 18.8% there's a 42% chance that we get the second overall pick. The Bruins would pick one of those gents but we wouldn't need to hear about how they should have picked the other one. Yeah, you know that would be coming.

Of course there's a third option, for third overall, and that's a 39.2% chance. That would be rough. We want that top-2 pick and that top-2 talent.

Good luck to us.

Versus, 8pm
NESN analysis, 8:30 pm
NHL.com streaming, 8pm.
GO BRUINS!

GLORY GLORY HALLALUJAH

Look, I know that things are looking very down and apparently we need to blow up the team or something and trade everyone or else the bruins will never win another game.

Just look at Pierre LeBrun's article over on that pinnacle of hockey coverage, ESPN.

"But I can tell you one thing, I'm not trading Toronto's pick [for this year]," said Chiarelli. "I am not trading it. That pick is too valuable."

You have no idea how glad that makes me. Now lets attack a troubling line from the article:

"The Bruins, who...currently sit one point out of a playoff spot" Bullshit. Stop right there, Pierre. As it turns out, every team plays 82 games. Once you've got that little tidbit in your brain let's look at the Games Played stat.

Three teams ahead of Boston have the same amount of games played as Boston: Buffalo, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Buffalo and New Jersey are so far ahead right now they'd have to suffer dramatically for us to catch up. Philadelphia is one of the teams between 6 and 12 that is at either 55 or 54 points right now.

Two teams have one more game played than Boston: Washington and Atlanta. Washington is in the same category as Buffalo and NJ, and Atlanta has the same point total.

Three teams have 2 more games played than Boston: both New York teams and Florida. They're all in that 55 or 54 bubble as well.

Four teams have 3 more games played than Boston: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh. Peter already told us about Toronto's season, Montreal is bubbling along, and Ottawa and Pittsburgh are at 62 and 67 points right now.

Going by the absolute standings the Bruins are in 12th right now. However, if you go by points percentage, the Bruins are in 7th. Let me repeat that:

The Bruins are in 7th in the East.

7th ain't so bad. 7th is, in fact, a playoff spot. And that's what we've achieved with a crippled team that's been in a slump and lost the last 5 games. What I'm saying is the Bruins aren't screwed yet. But that bubble's going to burst eventually and I hope we don't sell the future now for some crap rental.

Hope Springs Eternal.

GO BRUINS!

L10: First ten games (5-4-1) A LITTLE BETTER ALL THE TIME (Can't get much worse!)

Well, hmmm.

Rk	Team	GP	W	L	OL	PTS	PTS%	GF	GA	SRS	TG/G	PPG	PPO	PP%	PPGA	PPOA	PK%	SHG	SHGA
17	Boston Bruins	10	5	4	1	11	.550	30	32	-0.42	6.20	6	40	15.00	10	41	75.61	0	3

The Bruins have had an interesting start to their season. They started off losing, we lost Lucic and Savard to LTIR for a broken finger and broken foot. We traded Kobasew to Minnesota and picked up Daniel Paille from Buffalo, marking the first time Boston and Buffalo had ever made a trade that wasn't for ufa bargaining rights. On top of that, we're about 1/8th through the season and the Bruins have just put together their first consecutive, uh...point-getting games. Going by point percentage, the Bruins are 9th in the east. They have the 4th-worst powerplay in the league right now, converting 6 out of 40 chances or at a 15% clip.

That's terrible. So is letting in 10 powerplay goals over 41 chances, or a 75.61% success rate. This pretty much sucks too. Oh look, another fun fact: The Bruins tie the Tampa Bay Lightning for the league lead in short-handed goals against with three. Not too surprising, since the Bruins powerplay managed to get an icing call against it once recently. Basically that needs to get a lot better.

However, last years Bruins had a bit of rust too and I remember watching the PK and PP numbers continuously get better last year. Here's to that happening again, especially after Savard and Lucic come back. Last year around this time the Bruins were 30th in PK with 70%, and ended up 12th with 82.35%. Last year's powerplay was only bested by San Jose, Washington, and Detroit over the regular season.

Bergeron now has his chance to live up to his 5 million dollar contract. You can do it, Patrice!

How's our draft pick doing? (Toronto update)
Current Status: TAYLOR HALL
Toronto hasn't yet won a game, and only forced overtime once. They're 0-7-1, and have spent more time this season down by 5 than up by anything. Combined.

I think the next 10 games are going to be better than the last as people get more used to playing with the new folks. I think the Kobasew trade shook them up a bit. Lucic and Savard are still out, and that will make things...interesting. Let's hope the rookies play well. They've done okay so far. And the Revolution just made the playoffs! Awesome!

GO BRUINS!

Dan Paille trade is for veteran Catwalker, middling forward

Well, my previous method of finding out about new Bruins acquisitions by typing their name into youtube has worked again. Here's the thing: The first video is of him laying out a hab, and the third - THAT'S 1-2-3 THIRD - is of him at a "Charity Catwalk." I think this whole Improper Bostonian thing is rubbing off.

For your review, and because I'm not clever enough to sub in the fashion show scene from Slapshot:

Sheesh.

At least the fourth video is Paille laying out another Hab. If he can do that more often, he'll have a lot of friends in Boston. If he's too busy doing fashion shows where the announcer says it's his "best shot all year" then we might have a problem. We only gave up a 3rd and conditional 4th and his contract expires at the end of the year. Looking good, Chiarelli. Re-sign a couple guys now.

Kobasew shirts will be wicked cheap though, and Wild fans out there want a shirt to go along with the new Savior of the Franchise?

UPDATE

He knocks Chara over, but is worse for wear post-hit.
O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

I think I need more centered text.

Preds up tonight. More on that later.

GO BRUINS!

Bill Simmons is an idiot

"Sportsguy33" on twitter is Bill Simmons, noted disney sportswriter and Boston Bandwagonner extraordinaire. Now, I'm not one to dislike bandwagon fans. Hell, pre-lockout I couldn't name 5 guys in the NHL on the first try. But enough about me. I've learned. Bill Simmons is stuck in the pre-salary-cap era.

Here's what a salary cap is, Bill, and I'll try to use monosyllabic words so you don't get lost: A cap is how much a team can spend on all of the folks on the team each year. You can not pay more than that to all of the folks on the team. If one guy wants too much, they must trade and get good stuff back.

Oh by the way, Kessel was traded to the leafs for 2010's first and second and 2011's first pick. He signed there for 5.4 per for 5 years. Kid got PAID. Now lets see how that torn labrum is doing.

Can't wait for the first Bruins/Leafs game of the year. Odd.

GO BRUINS!

Wardo: The Return (to Carolina)

Well, something had to give. The Bruins traded Aaron Ward for the 2010 4th-round pick and Patrick Eaves, who they immediately waived.

Aaron Ward will be missed in Boston, both on the blue line and on the air, as his weekly call-in to toucher and rich was usually quite funny.

We'll miss you, Aaron.

Now on to the important part: Aaron Ward was the third-highest paid Defenseman on the team, behind Chara and Wideman. His cap hit was 2.5 Million. With this trade and waiving, that's going to clear up a total of about 5.3 Million in cap space, which should be enough to pay Kessel and get another crappy defenseman in. But the bruins would be very weak on defense and strong on offense in that case. So with that the Bruins' blue line will be, in no particular order:
Chara, Wideman, Hunwick, Ference, Stuart, Boychuk? I haven't seen Boychuk play, but I assume that because we had Montador instead of him in Boston he's not as good as Montador, so...

Of course, they could always go back to that Kessel for Kaberle trade with the Leafs. Assuming Chiarelli still has Burke on hold. I might be okay with that.

I wish they would just sign Kessel or move him or something, waiting is the hardest part.

69 days until we see the first day roster take to the ice at the Garden.

GO BRUINS!

HOCKEY CHRISTMAS UPDATE: Recchi for Karsums and Lashoff

Recchi was brought in by the Bruins, in a trade for Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums. Bruins get Tampa Bay second round pick, as well, which will probably be quite high in the draft order.

"I'm excited" - Recchi

0.97 points/game over his Long Career. Won a cup with Aaron Ward in Carolina. Could be his last season.

HOCKEY CHRISTMAS UPDATE: Nokelainen for Steve Montador

Petteri Nokelainen is a Bruin no more.  He's been traded for Steve Montador.


Montador has been .3 points/game this season and last, Nokelainen has been about .15.

HOCKEY CHRISTMAS UPDATE: Cam Neely says nothing

Cam Neely just popped up on the bruins video site:

ok, I admit this is just to move the philly game down the page.
GO BRUINS!

Glen Metropolit to Montreal on Waivers

Ah, the good times.

Right before we have to start all hating on Glen Metropolit for being picked up by the Habs, let's remember the good times.

He scored the game winner in a huge game in Montreal - Game 5.  it was his only He scored the game winner in a huge game in Montreal - Game 5 of the playoffs last year.  it was his only playoff point in the NHL, and it was a good one.  Here's the video:

Everytime I saw him play last year, he was always hustling.  While he was with Philly, I could handle it.  But dammit.  He's a Hab now.  I'll miss you, Glen.  I know it's not your fault, and I'll like you again when you're not a Hab.

Never Forget.

Other News:

• Savard, Lucic Questionable.  Wheeler Probable.  Ducks are still terrible.
• Puck Prospectus: An interview with P.J. Axelsson and Kimmo Timmenen  "Wayne Gretzky. He probably changed the game."

GO BRUINS!